From Millionaire to 007: Steven Knight finishes first Bond draft
The writer of the next James Bond film helped create Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Steven Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, has finished the first draft of the script for the 26th Bond film, a reboot of the 007 franchise for Amazon MGM. He revealed the milestone during a conversation at the RTS London Convention, as reported by Variety.
Knight was hired by Amazon MGM to write the film, which will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, according to Variety. Amy Pascal and David Heyman will produce, according to the official 007 site. Knight has said he was "very, very excited" to take on the job, the BBC reported.
Back in the late 1990s, Knight was one of the creators of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the TV quiz show built around rising cash prizes and lifelines. At the RTS event he described the strange double life he was leading while that show was taking off.
He was also writing radio, radio commercials and comedy for Frankie Howard, Ken Dodd and Jasper Carrott, alongside novels. His fourth novel, he said, was supposed to be Dirty Pretty Things.
He was writing it in the present tense as a book. Then he made a different call. He would write it as a script instead.
That script found its way to director Stephen Frears and became the 2002 film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou. Set among London's invisible underclass of immigrant workers, as described at the time by Variety, it was Knight's first produced film. He said he went to Hollywood on the back of it.
What makes this stand out is the distance between those two jobs. One is a quiz format designed to stop channel surfers. The other is one of cinema's longest-running characters.
Knight has stayed busy on both sides of that divide. Alongside the Bond script, he was hired by Noel and Liam Gallagher to shape the Oasis tour documentary Don't Look Back in Anger.
Casting for Bond remains unconfirmed. Actor Gary Oldman recently claimed the next Bond has already been chosen, Deadline reported. Asked about the claim, Knight stonewalled questions and refused to deny it.
